RBI highlights scope for increasing credit penetration in North India

RBI Deputy Governor N S Vishwanathan said Thursday that there is much scope for increasing credit penetration in the Northern part of the country and microfinance institutions (MFIs) should expand their presence there.

Vishwanathan further said that MFIs need to become more efficient and invest more money in technology upgradation.

"There is so much scope for increasing credit penetration in the Northern part of the country...Historically MFIs have primarily focused in Southern part of India. They need to diversify their risk. So, they should expand their presence in the Northern part of India," he said while addressing delegates at the Sa-Dhan National Conference 2018 here.

The deputy governor also pointed out that linkages between microfinance and development sector are very critical.

Vishwanathan noted that the informal sector has lesser access to credit and virtually no access to the financial market even though 81 percent of the workforce is employed in the informal sector in India.

"In order to sustain formal economy, informal economy needs to be upgraded," he said.